


Asking Nicely

by CanaryCry



Series: DickTiger Week 2018 [1]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU, DCU (Comics), Grayson (Comics)
Genre: DickTigerWeek2018, Flirting, M/M, Mind Games, Pansexual Character, Prompt Fill, Spies & Secret Agents, Spyral, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-22
Updated: 2018-02-22
Packaged: 2019-03-22 10:44:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13762440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CanaryCry/pseuds/CanaryCry
Summary: DickTiger Week 2018 Day 1: Sweet TalkDick uses his charm to complete a mission. Tiger doesn't understand how he does it, so Dick demonstrates on him. The results are... not what either of them expected.





	Asking Nicely

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [DickTiger Week Prompts](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/359082) by DickTiger Week tumblr. 



> Hey, I'm back! I find it super hard to make the mental switch between fanfic and original fiction, and just haven't been able to get my head into fanfic mode these past few months. But I really wanted to participate in DickTiger Week and it seemed like a good way to get back into writing fic. One-shots require less mental strain than continuing a multi-chapter story that I have to repeatedly reread because I forgot how to write.
> 
> Some story notes:
> 
> First: A muslim friend of mine calls Tiger's headwear a lungee, so that's the word I'm using for it these days.
> 
> Second: I headcanon Dick as pansexual. It wasn't originally going to appear in this fic, but given my personal experiences with bi erasure and the turn the dialogue took, I felt it more appropriate to include a label than not. (If anyone's curious, I headcanon Tiger as gay. He's one of the few characters I see that way rather than bi or pan or, in some cases, ace.)
> 
> I'm also posting this earlier on AO3 than I am on Tumblr because I don't wanna do it too early there. Time zones, man.

Tiger had planned this mission carefully. Guard patrols were tight, so there was only a short window to get into this pampered millionaire's office, grab the stolen hard drive and get out. Quick, but simple enough. Tiger should have been able to do this mission in his sleep.

It... did not happen that way.

Agent 37—Dick Grayson—was posted as lookout, at Helena's insistence. It did not matter that Tiger was capable of doing this on his own.

Or so he had thought.

Grayson's voice crackled to life in Tiger's earpiece. “Guards headed your way.”

“Already?” Tiger huffed, shoving the desk drawer shut. He had searched all the obvious places—most of the desk, under the couch, behind the ugly paintings—and had yet to find what he had come for.

“You need to get out now, or things are gonna get messy.”

Tiger felt beneath the desk for loose panels or buttons. “We have hypnos for a reason. Delay them.”

Dick sighed loudly. “ _Fine_.”

Tiger's fingers found a panel. He dug in, prying it open, cursing under his breath as a corner pinched his skin.

Then it was open. And empty. Damn it.

He gazed around the room. It was sparse, in that obnoxiously wealthy look-at-me-I-don't-have-to-hoard-to-survive kind of way. Two couches. A coffee table. Strange paintings with blocks and lines that Tiger would hesitate to call art. No bookshelves.

He had searched this place thoroughly. If this thief had the hard drive, he did not hide it in his office. And Tiger was out of time.

“Diverted the guards for a minute,” Dick said, voice hushed and hurried. “Get back to base. I have a lead. The guards think I'm here to visit the thief's daughter. I'm headed to her now.”

“What exactly are you doing?” If this was another one of the man's harebrained schemes...

“You know I'm good with people. And if that fails, there's always hypnos... even if the damn things give me a hangover for days.”

Tiger honestly did not have a better plan. “Fine,” he snapped. “I will not come back to rescue you if you fail.”

Dick snorted. “Of course you won't. Get out of here while I've got the guards distracted... and get ready to be amazed.”

* * *

Tiger ended up jumping out of a window and swinging between balconies to escape the building. It reminded him of the few times he and Dick had trained together, barely civil, and traded techniques. Tiger had been fighting for most of his life and knew what he was doing, but Dick had trained as an acrobat from a young age. They had plenty to teach each other... even if Tiger would never admit that aloud.

The safehouse was a tiny studio apartment across the city. Tiger warmed a tub of instant ramen in the microwave and sat on one of two rickety camp beds shoved into the corner. He burned his tongue on the noodles, too distracted by reliving the mission. Those guards had not been scheduled for another three minutes. Had their intel been wrong?

Contacting headquarters was too risky while Dick was still in the field. That question would have to wait. Tiger blew on a forkful of noodles, weighing up how long he should wait before going back in for Dick. Though it was yet another thing Tiger would never say out loud, the thought of losing another partner so soon after Alia was unbearable.

Dick had sounded confident. Tiger needed to give him a chance to do... whatever it was he planned to do. Politely ask the young woman for the hard drive? Seduce her and wait for her to be distracted? The thought put Tiger off his noodles, which were not that appetising in the first place.

They were cold when he finished them, and he had barely thrown out the cup when Dick climbed in through the nearest window. Smiling.

“Well?” said Tiger.

Dick slid the window shut and pulled the hard drive out of his pocket. “Piece of cake.”

Tiger swallowed down his first reaction, the relief that Dick was safe, for a more measured response. “Helena will want to know how you did it.”

“And I'm sure you're not curious _at all_.” Dick placed the drive in the case they'd brought with them for transportation. “I asked nicely.”

“In my experience, people do not simply do things because they were asked.”

“You've got to make them feel good about it.” Dick shrugged. “Make them feel special, you know?”

“Evidently not.” Tiger could be friendly when he wanted to be. That did not mean people gave him things just because he asked. Dick and Helena were possibly the only two people he knew who could be that damn persuasive.

Dick leaned against the fridge in an oddly fluid motion, out of place in this run down pit of a safehouse. “Body language helps. The right tone of voice. A killer smile.” He grinned, slightly crooked, his eyes sparkling. “Some people like to be touched, but others hate it, at least with a stranger. Everyone's different. You've got to get a read on them first.”

“Your lessons will be lost on me.” Tiger's voice came out strained, and he did not understand why.

Dick shrugged, tilting his head, his smile wider than before. “You were curious.”

“Bewildered.”

“If you say so,” Dick said warmly. The tone did strange things to Tiger's stomach. “The thief's daughter wasn't hard. She'd already stolen the drive from her dad because she thought stealing military secrets was dangerous as all hell. I just had to persuade her that giving it to me was better than turning it over to the police.”

“Yes, that sounds easy,” Tiger said dryly.

“She didn't want her dad to go to prison,” Dick replied, his voice soft. “She loves him, but he never has time for her. She wants to feel _seen_.” Something shifted behind his eyes, an emotion Tiger couldn't name. Sad... but not. “I can relate.”

Wistful. That was the word.

Tiger shook away a strange feeling of empathy rising within him. “So... you made her feel seen.”

“Yeah. We had a nice chat. I pulled out the charm, and she gave me the drive.”

Tiger scoffed outwardly, but he had seen that charm in action before.

Dick laughed, and his whole face lit up; he had a nice smile. “Still don't believe me?”

“Does it matter?” Tiger muttered. His ears felt too hot, and he was relieved he had worn his lungee today. If the heat spread to his cheeks, there would be no hiding it.

“It matters to me,” Dick said mildly. “Besides, I've been demonstrating on you this whole time and now you're blushing, so it must've worked.”

Damn it.

“I am not blushing.” There was no point pretending, but Tiger couldn't stop himself. Dick Grayson was obnoxious, cheerful and did not have the stomach for the messier aspects of espionage. And, yet, his insistent happiness was contagious... and charming. Tiger did not understand the man, but he was oddly compelling.

But this was just a game to Dick. Even if it was not, they were too different and would probably end up knocking each other's teeth out.

Why was Tiger even thinking about this? Because Dick smiled at him? Ridiculous.

“If you say so,” Dick said, his eyes sparkling with amusement... at Tiger's expense.

“We need to leave,” Tiger said, turning away.

Dick darted ahead of him, opening the door and bowing him through. “Can we grab donuts on the way?”

“No.” Tiger needed to get back to base and hide for a week.

“Aw, come on.”

Tiger tried to stay ahead of him so he wouldn't have to make eye contact, but Dick kept getting in front, twirling backwards to throw another blinding smile at him.

By the time they reached the car, Tiger's resolve was crumbling. He slouched into the car seat.

“Fine.”

Dick raised an eyebrow, smirking. “Interesting.”

“Shut up.”

* * *

Dick didn't see Tiger for a few days after debrief. It was jarring; he'd gotten used to training with him. Maybe flirting with him had been a bad idea. Dick hadn't even known Tiger would respond like that; he'd almost expected another brush-off, but there was a lot Dick didn't know about him.

Sometimes when Dick couldn't sleep, he would head down to the training rooms and try to tire himself enough to fall into bed and pass out for a few hours at least. Handing a hard drive full of military technology to Spyral hadn't sat well with him; even after warning Bruce, he was still having trouble sleeping because of it.

The trapeze put his mind off things for a while. The familiarity calmed him like it always did. It was always the first thing he missed when away from home, so having the facilities here was one of the few things keeping his head on straight while being cut of from almost everyone he knew.

He was sweating like hell by the time he landed on the platform, spotting movement out of the corner of his eye. It was hard to make out fine features from this distance, but the man who slipped through the door was well-built and brown-skinned, and who the hell else would be training in this part of the building at a bullshit hour like this?

Dick hurried down the ladder, not even bothering to hide the fact he was hurrying. Tiger's face came into better focus; he hadn't worn anything on his head tonight. Maybe it was too late to bother.

“'Evening,” Dick said, forcibly casual as he hopped off the ladder.

“It is morning,” Tiger responded.

“And yet we're both here.”

“You were not in your room.”

“Aww, were you looking for me?”

The look Tiger gave him could incinerate water.

Dick grabbed the towel and water bottle he'd left by the door. “Well, I'm gonna shower and collapse for a few hours... hopefully. If there's anything you're desperate to say, you might wanna say it now while I'm still mostly conscious.”

Tiger's eyes flicked to a spot on the wall holding a camera Spyral hadn't even bothered to conceal. “Not here.”

“You have somewhere in mind?”

“I do.” Tiger shoved the door open, even holding it long enough for Dick to follow him. He'd once let one slam in his face when Dick had been particularly annoying. Dick didn't blame him.

They ended up in Dick's bedroom, which gave him all sorts of ideas he shouldn't have been entertaining about his mission partner. Spyral did have fraternisation rules, even if they didn't seem to enforce them consistently. And the last person he slept with died not long after, so... maybe not a good idea.

After switching on his bedside lamp, Dick leaned against the wall and made a token effort not to look like it was the only thing holding him up. “What do you want, Tiger?”

Tiger was facing away from him, arms crossed. “How did you know I like men?”

“I didn't.”

“Then why did you try your... _thing_ on me?”

“I was curious about how you'd react. I would've switched to a different tactic if nothing happened.”

“You treated me like one of your marks.”

“People are people, Tiger, and you're hard to read. I've got to learn about you somehow.”

“You want to know how to manipulate me.”

“Oh, please. You're a much better spy than me. If you didn't want to be manipulated, you wouldn't be. Not by someone as incompetent as I am.” Dick kept his tone light and teasing. Honestly, Tiger's insistence that Dick didn't know what he was doing in the field was a bit excessive... like he was putting on an act, or trying to fool himself into keeping his distance. Emotional self-defence, maybe.

Tiger grumbled under his breath. This whole thing was fascinating, and Dick was definitely thinking of the man in ways he hadn't allowed himself before the hard drive mission.

Then Tiger turned around with a curious expression on his face that Dick couldn't place. Not angry—he'd seen plenty of that. Not terrified, either. He'd seen that too.

Eyes narrowed. Mouth slightly quirked at the corner. Thinking, maybe? Plotting? Dick was too tired for this shit... which had been the goal this whole time so at least something had gone right tonight.

“I take it you like men?” Tiger asked.

“I like everyone,” Dick replied.

“No. I mean do you—”

“I know what you meant. I'm pansexual. Gender isn't really a huge factor for me.”

“Okay.” Tiger regarded him for a moment, and Dick really wished he had some kind of mind-reading superpower right about how.

Then he took a step. And another one. He leaned into Dick's personal space and brushed a hand across Dick's cheek. He was close. Really close. His mouth a mere inch away. Oh. Okay.

Dick sucked in a breath, heart hammering wildly. The moment hung, suspended in time, and Dick found himself leaning in just a fraction, not enough to make contact, but enough that he couldn't hide it.

Then Tiger stepped backwards, raising an amused eyebrow. “Interesting.”

“Oh, fuck you.” The words were out of Dick's mouth before he could stop them.

Tiger smirked. “You would like that.”

Then he was gone, leaving Dick alone in his room with a jackhammer of a heart. As the days had passed, Dick had almost convinced himself that Tiger wasn't going to retaliate, that they were going to put the mission behind them and pretend it never happened. He hadn't counted on Tiger using his own weapons against him. God damn it.

“Bastard,” he muttered under his breath, but he was also kind of impressed. And aroused.

Well played, Tiger. Well played.


End file.
